A Foul Foul Beast

I woke up yesterday morning thinking I must be sick I felt so cold. Despite getting dressed and turning up the heat, I still felt cold. When I walked outside, which did not seem too cold, I felt chilled. I was wearing a wool coat, a wool ski sweater, a tee shirt, jeans, knee socks, and leather shoes. Later I found out it was negative one degree celsius and everyone was just as cold as I was.

The weather has been a tumultous beast this week. On Friday, several friends from California were visiting and as we walked into town, we encountered rain, sleet, hail, and snow. Then there was the wind. The BBC had predicted it would be around 40mph, but considering the sheer force I would have believed it was stronger. Lena commented that even the hurricane winds she experienced in Florida weren't this strong.

We went down to the beach and saw the waves washing over the top of the stone pier. We could barely climb the path back up the hill to the cathedral ruins.

This past week I've encountered snow three of the four days. Yesterday it did not snow in St. Andrews, but I had to go on a field trip to the Grassic Gibbon Centre in Aberdeenshire and along the way, the bus had to drive through an actual snow storm. In the safety of the Gibbon Centre we watched the snow pour down, tea in hand, wondering where our crazy Scottish professor would take us next. Luckily, our next jaunt to the old Norman church ended before the next wave of snow came down. By the time we reached St. Andrews, we were back in the land of sun and gale force wind.
Strangely enough on Saturday I got sunburned while we walked around the fishing town of Anstruther. It was snowing lightly and I was only outside for several hours. However, this only proves that I am fully adapting to Scottish culture, or have enough Northern European blood in me to fully weather the climate like a native.

Weathering Colds and the Radio

It's raining and I'm at home nursing some variant of the virus that seems to be ensnaring the student population of St. Andrews. This means I feel like doing absolutely nothing and watching tv all day. Oh, wait! That's what I feel like doing every day!

No, I'm just joshing, as my friend Michael would say. I just happen to be a very miserable person when I am sick. That is, sick enough to still do everything but with a head that feels like it might explode, or already did due to the strange side affects of cold medicine.

I was told by a friend of mine today that the Scottish weather has once again returned and brought us winds predicted to be around 40mph. He was upset as he won't be able to golf. I was more upset about the upcoming walk I will have to undertake to get anywhere in this town. Basically, my residence is a mile outside of town and the easiest way to get there is to go through a path through a field. I thought last week's 20mph were bad enough (there are no windbreaks).

St. Andrews suffers from a microclimate, although far from the legendary La Jolla one, due to its position on the Scottish coast. Unlike the west coast, we escape a majority of storms and end up with one of the more temperate Scottish climates. Until the winds arrive. I can deal with snow and frost and rain and sleet. In fact, I like the cold and varied weather. But when you walk through an empty field with no one in sight for miles and hear the howling wind and a few lone crows, it seems more reminiscent of death. Or in Paradise Lost when the devil is about to appear.

On a better note, I am now volunteering at the radio station as a producer. Last Saturday night was my first show. I don't do any announcing - that's what the DJ is for - but I make sure everything goes out on the air, music, DJ's voice, etc., and give feedback to the DJ for the show. The show I'm working on is called Lucien's Alternative to Alternative, which is broadcast at midnight on Saturday nights (that's 4pm for CA listeners). You can stream it online at www.standrewsradio.com I believe that is enough of a plug.

I had a ton of fun the other night throwing it together. There were a couple of snags - like when one of the CDs wouldn't play - and then when the DJ forgot to give me the right cue for a song, but all in all, it went well. I'm sending the DJ some track suggestions and hopefully he'll play some of them.

I should get back to my bowl of tea - I was inspired by the French breakfast ritual of drinking coffee out of boules. I also uploaded my pictures from Cairo which you can view here and more of the pyramids here.